Word: holidays
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...Since then, Juneteenth has been a day of celebration for many African Americans, a de facto second Independence Day commemorating the end of slavery and a first step toward inclusion in the greater American dream. It's a bittersweet holiday, "a time of celebration, but also a time of reflection, healing, and hopefully a time for the country to come together and deal with its slave legacy," says the Rev. Ronald V. Meyers, chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. Meyers has worked for almost 15 years to get Juneteenth recognized by state legislatures. Currently, a little more than half...
...Only one, however, actually celebrates it as a legal state holiday: Texas. Juneteenth celebrations began there in the years following General Gordon Granger's 1865 proclamation in Galveston and continued for decades. The tradition spread to bordering Southern states, such as Arkansas and Louisiana, as migrating African Americans fanned out from Texas. It reached as far as California - where San Francisco has held one of the nation's largest Juneteenth celebrations for the last five-plus decades - and Minnesota, where Minneapolis boasts a large festival...
...would expect from an unofficial holiday, its popularity has waxed and waned over the decades. It fell from favor during the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and '60s, as African Americans looked more to change their future rather than focus on the past. Following a resurgence in popularity in the '70s, however, Texas state legislator Al Edwards in 1979 introduced a bill to make Juneteenth a state holiday; the first state-approved celebration took place the following year. Edwards, sometimes referred to as the father of Juneteenth (and less well known for his support in 2005 of a bill...
Best known as the young George Bailey in the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life, actor Robert Anderson appeared in other films, including A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and The Bishop's Wife, after playing the childhood version of Jimmy Stewart's now beloved character. But by the time the Frank Capra film--not an immediate hit--became ubiquitous on holiday television in the 1970s, Anderson was well into the next phase of his career: behind the lens, working as a photographer, assistant director and producer...
...with populist fire-breathing--he does say he wants to hit oil companies with a windfall-profits tax (which might discourage investment in new energy resources and would definitely not do much to help motorists), but that's arguably less pandering than McCain's proposal for a gas-tax holiday, which Obama has outspokenly opposed. And while Obama says he wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and other such pacts, he usually makes a point of defending free trade and globalization in the same breath. This can probably be chalked up to a natural penchant for truth...